The consumer pushback on expensive lunch salads is benefitting one Los Angeles-based chain: Everytable.
Everytable is a unique 41-unit chain with tiny low-cost storefronts served by a central commissary kitchen. The goal is hyper efficiency to keep prices low, though Everytable uses a sliding scale to determine pricing. A dish might be $6 in a lower-income neighborhood, and $8 in a higher-income area, which helps subsidize food costs.
The concept, founded by Sam Polk, is also built around multiple channels. The chain, for example, provides meals to seniors or homeless shelters, under contract.
One growing channel is Everytable@Work, a service that allows employers to use Everytable to feed their workers on site.
"The service is exploding in popularity," Polk said. Since it was launched about 10 months ago, more than 300 offices and school districts have signed on, and it has become a seven-figure business for Everytable. Current clients include businesses like Shopify, BMW, and Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, he said.
It’s similar to office lunch delivery progams like Fooda, Foodja, or even EzCater. In fact, Everytable works with all of those as third-party partners, said Polk.
Those services give workers multiple menu options, and they’re “great for companies or employees that have a lot of money,” said Polk, like tech workers or bankers, for example.
“But there’s also a massive need for the same thing for people who don’t have that kind of capital,” he said.
Businesses can go direct with Everytable to offer lower-cost options for lunch, with or without employer subsidies. Workers get a daily email in the morning inviting them to put in their lunch order. Those meals are consolidated and arrive hot at an agreed-upon time, fulfilled through the local Everytable outlet with no extra delivery fees.
The Everytable@Work deliveries are priced at 10% off whatever the pricing is for that neighborhood. A business in Compton, for example, would see a 10% discount from dishes as they are priced in the Everytable there, which Polk estimated would be about $6 to $8. A business in higher-end Palo Alto would get the same discount from the higher prices set there, which would be roughly $7 to $10.
Everytable, for example, provides meals for both students and staff at 31 schools within the Compton School District. In Palo Alto, the school district staff gets fed by Everytable. In the Azusa Unified School District, it’s just the students.
Everytable launched the @Work program about 10 months ago, and it has become about 4% to 5% of the average unit volume, which Polk believes can grow significantly.
Sweetgreen, for example, offers a similar service with its Outpost program, but those lunch prices can top $20 per bowl, plus delivery fees, which for many workers is just not sustainable, Polk said.
“We think this is an important service in the world of exploding food inflation, and exploding delivery cost inflation,” he said. “And it gives people this solution for lunchtime. It’s almost cheaper, if you take labor into consideration, than making your own meal.”
Sweetgreen, however, offers customizable meals. While there’s no build-a-bowl option at Everytable, the menu has variety that belies the price point.
This week, for example, Everytable launched a limited-time dish in collaboration with hip-hop artist 310babii who created Fire Shrimp Pasta, with spicy shrimp over spaghetti marinara with rustic basil breadcrumbs to offer crunch.
Other dishes might include a gumbo created by famed local chef Keith Corbin; or Birria Mac & Cheese with a side of hot honey sweet potatoes and black beans developed by actor and artist G Perico, as well as salads, wraps and desserts.
Everytable's Chicken Tinga is a top seller. | Photo courtesy of Everytable.
The low pricing is possible in part because of the low unit costs. The franchised storefronts are about 800 square feet, which cost less than $350,000 to build, and can be operated with one person. There’s no cooking in units—that’s all handled in the central kitchen.
Units average about $900,000 annually.
And Everytable is growing again. Polk said the chain expects to reach 55 to 60 units, including a move for the first time into Phoenix.
At a time when restaurant chains are waging value wars, Polk believes Everytable’s everyday low pricing will win over regulars.
He compared it to the boom in Dollar stores during the 2008 financial crisis.
During that painful financial period, he said, “a ton of people moved to the Dollar stores. And when the economy rebounded, a lot of them stayed because they saw what great deals there were.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.